Most of Tesla’s current large investors have committed to the fundraising, according to Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive officer and also its main backer with $55 million of his own money invested in it.
(NYT27) SAN CARLOS, Calif. -- July 18, 2008 -- NOCERA-COLUMN -- Elon Musk, 37, chairman of Tesla Motors, with one of the companies Roadsters at their headquarters in San Carlos, Calif., July 8, 2008. After raising $150 million and going through four years of technological and internal struggles, the company has begun manufacturing the first-ever all-electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster. Its price tag is $109,000. The age of the electric car, Musk is convinced, has dawned. (Peter DaSilva/The New York Times) less

Most of Tesla’s current large investors have committed to the fundraising, according to Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive officer and also its main backer with $55 million of his own money invested ... more

Photo: Peter DaSilva / NYT

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Tesla upgrade will allow Roadster to reach 400-mile range

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Tesla Motors Inc. is offering upgrades to the sporty two-seater that it no longer sells to give owners of the electric Roadster as much as a 400-mile range, enough to drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

Improved battery technology can provide 31 percent more energy than the original Roadster cells, the Palo Alto company said in a blog post. Combined with an aerodynamics kit, new tires and improvements to wheel bearings and brakes, range can be increased as much as 50 percent compared with the original Roadster, Tesla said. The company didn’t say what it will charge for the upgrades, which it collectively calls Roadster 3.0.

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“There is a set of speeds and driving conditions where we can confidently drive the Roadster 3.0 over 400 miles,” Tesla said in the blog item. “We will be demonstrating this in the real world during a non-stop drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the early weeks of 2015.”

Tesla sold about 2,500 of the $109,000 Roadsters, which were built on a Lotus chassis. The car was introduced in 2008, and bringing it to market amid a global recession amplified cost overruns and production delays, nearly tipping the company into bankruptcy. Tesla went public in 2010, and reported its only profit in the first quarter of 2013.

Tesla shares have recovered after falling 23 percent in the four weeks that ended Dec. 16, when they closed below $200 for the first time in more than half a year. The shares are up 48 percent for the year through Wednesday, quadrupling the 12 percent gain by the Russell 1000 Index.

The Model S, the only car Tesla currently has in production, will get a battery-pack upgrade eventually, though not soon, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a tweet over the weekend.